Author: whatcathyreadnext

BookReview – The Beach at Doonshean by Penny Feeny @Aria_Fiction

whatcathyreadnext

About the Book

In Ireland, the past never dies…

Long ago, on a windswept Irish beach, a young father died saving the life of another man’s child.

Thirty years later, his widow, Julia, decides to return to this wild corner of Ireland to lay the past to rest. Her journey sparks others: her daughter Bel, an artist, joins her mother in Ireland, while son Matt and daughter-in-law Rachael, at home in Liverpool, embark on some soul-searching of their own.

As the threads of past and present intertwine, Julia’s family confront long-buried feelings of guilt, anger, fear and desire. Only then can they allow the crashing waves of the beach at Doonshean to bond them together once again.

Format: e-book (416 pages) Publisher: Aria
Publication date: 15th August 2019  Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Find The Beach at Doonshean on Goodreads

Purchase The Beach at Doonshean from Amazon.co.uk [link provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme]

My Review

If you’re looking for a book that explores the dynamics and challenges of family life and relationships as well as the lasting impact that past events can have on the lives of those involved, then you need look no further than The Beach at Doonshean. Furthermore if, like Julia, you believe that coincidence is much more common than you imagine, you certainly won’t be disappointed. And for good measure, there are lovely descriptions of the landscape and coastline of western Ireland.

‘At its lowest ebb, the full wild beauty of the strand was exposed: the glistening of seaweed at the shoreline, the grill of lacy foam, the scattering of shells. And all around her, the rocks rose like exotic hanging gardens, rich with jeweller clumps of sea thrift and mallow.’

The sections of the book focussing on Matt and Rachael as they settle into their new home in Liverpool could seem like a separate story, perhaps even a separate book. However, the author skilfully brings together the two storylines when events take a dramatic turn bringing echoes of the past.

What unites all the characters in the book is the fact they are adjusting to changes in their lives: Julia, facing retirement and looking for new purpose; Bel, returning from adventures abroad and needing to rebuild her health; Matt and Rachael, making a new home for their son, Danny, and pondering their future; brothers Kieran and Tom, returning home to Ireland, the latter with unexpected new responsibilities and unsure of the welcome he’ll receive.

The book ends on a positive note with the possibility of new beginnings, second chances as well as the prospect of fresh goals and challenges making The Beach at Doonshean an absorbing, acutely-observed family drama.

In three words: Heart-warming, emotional, absorbing
Try something similar: Tell Me Where You Are by Moira Forsyth

About the Author

Penny Feeny
Penny Feeny has lived and worked in Cambridge, London and Rome. Since settling in Liverpool many years ago she has been an arts administrator, editor, radio presenter, advice worker, and has brought up five children. Her short fiction has been widely published and broadcast and won several awards. Her first novel, That Summer in Ischia, was one of the summer of 2011’s bestselling titles.

Connect with Penny
Goodreads

WWW Wednesdays – 14th August ‘19

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WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

the mathematical bridgeThe Mathematical Bridge by Jim Kelly (hardcover, review copy courtesy of Allison & Busby)

Cambridge, 1940. It is the first winter of the war, and snow is falling. When an evacuee drowns in the river, his body swept away, Detective Inspector Eden Brooke sets out to investigate what seems to be a deliberate attack.

The following night, a local electronics factory is attacked, and an Irish republican slogan is left at the scene. The IRA are campaigning to win freedom for Ulster, but why has Cambridge been chosen as a target? And when Brooke learns that the drowned boy was part of the close-knit local Irish Catholic community, he begins to question whether there may be a connection between the boy’s death and the attack at the factory.

As more riddles come to light, can Brooke solve the mystery before a second attack claims a famous victim?

Recently finished

Untitled: The Real Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor by Anna Pasternak (ebook, NetGalley)

Who was the real Wallis: an opportunistic American social climber, a master manipulator or the true love of Edward’s life? Amid the cacophony of condemnation her story has become obfuscated. Untitled is an intimate biography of one of the most misunderstood women in British royal history.

His charisma and glamour ensured him the status of a rock star prince. Yet Edward gave up the British throne, the British Empire and his position as Emperor of India, to marry his true love, American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

So much gossip and innuendo has been levelled at Wallis Simpson that it has become nearly impossible to discern the real woman. Many have wondered why, when Edward could have had anyone he desired, he was smitten with this unusual American woman. As her friend Herman Rogers said to her in 1936 when news of her affair with Edward broke: ‘Much of what is being said concerns a woman who does not exist and never did exist.’

History is mostly perceived from the perspective of his-story. But what about her story? Anna Pasternak’s new book is the first ever to give Wallis a chance and a voice to show that she was a warm, loyal, intelligent woman adored by her friends, who was written off by cunning, influential Establishment men seeking to diminish her and destroy her reputation. As the author argues, far from being the villain of the abdication, she was the victim.

Anna Pasternak is appearing at Henley Literary Festival 2019

The Beach at DoonsheanThe Beach at Doonshean by Penny Feeny (eARC, courtesy of Aria and NetGalley)

In Ireland, the past never dies…

Long ago, on a windswept Irish beach, a young father died saving the life of another man’s child.

Thirty years later, his widow, Julia, decides to return to this wild corner of Ireland to lay the past to rest. Her journey sparks others: her daughter Bel, an artist, joins her mother in Ireland, while son Matt and daughter-in-law Rachel, at home in Liverpool, embark on some soul-searching of their own.

As the threads of past and present intertwine, Julia’s family confront long-buried feelings of guilt, anger, fear and desire. Only then can they allow the crashing waves of the beach at Doonshean to bond them together once again. (Review to follow as part of blog tour)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Tides BetweenThe Tides Between by Elizabeth Jane Corbett (ebook, courtesy of the author and Odyssey Books)

In 1841, on the eve of her departure from London, Bridie’s mother demands she forget her dead father and prepare for a sensible, adult life in Port Phillip. Desperate to save her childhood, fifteen-year-old Bridie is determined to smuggle a notebook filled with her father’s fairy tales to the far side of the world.

When Rhys Bevan, a soft-voiced young storyteller and fellow traveller realises Bridie is hiding something, a magical friendship is born. But Rhys has his own secrets and the words written in Bridie’s notebook carry a dark double meaning.

As they inch towards their destination, Rhys’s past returns to haunt him. Bridie grapples with the implications of her dad’s final message. The pair take refuge in fairy tales, little expecting the trouble it will cause.